STATCOUNTER

June 2009

My birthday was last Wednesday and, it being a special one, we celebrated it twice. Once on the actual day, with a casual dinner, and again last Friday evening at a higher end dining venue.

I was allowed to select the casual place, and chose a local Mexican restaurant. When I booked they asked, as a matter of course, if it was for a special occasion, and I told them we were celebrating a birthday. When we came in and gave our name, I noted in the reservation log that there was a small “HB” next to my name, which I (correctly) assumed was their code for “Happy Birthday.”

Sure enough, at the end of the meal I was given a sombrero to wear, we were serenaded, and they gave us a nice little festive dessert with a candle. Delightful!

For the more costly dinner, my wife and daughters selected the place. They booked it on OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation web site. There is a place for comments and requests, where they put in the fact that we were celebrating a birthday.

We arrived, and the reservations lady wished me a happy birthday. When they showed me a table and I said if it would not be a bother I preferred a booth, the person seating us said, “No problem. After all, it is your birthday.” After dinner, on the way out, a different person at the desk said “Happy Birthday.”

That made three people who were aware that it was a birthday dinner. And what did this higher end service establishment do to help make it a special meal, to entice me into coming back, to make me want to tell the world about them? Absolutely nothing!

We had ordered three desserts, and no one thought of at least putting a candle in one of them. Or offered up a complimentary beverage, flowers for the table, or a little special side dish. I expected nothing elaborate, but since they obviously knew about the event, I did look forward to some small tangible recognition of the occasion.

A year from now I will not be able to remember what I ate in either of these two places, but there is no doubt as to which one I will return during the year.

Yes, I realize that restaurants are in the hospitality business, and you call your company’s client interactions “customer service.” But no matter what you provide, it is the little things that customers notice, comment on and remember.

The truth is, as far as your customers are concerned, you are indeed in the hospitality business.

New York’s newest attraction is the High Line. It is a park built on an abandoned elevated railroad track on the West Side of Manhattan. There is a wonderful article about it by Julie V. Iovine in the Wall Street Journal, with a video tour online. (Paid subscription required, unfortunately. But here is the FREE official High Line website.)

As interesting as this new park is, it is the story of community doubts, prohibitive costs general opposition, and their eventual resolution that is more to the point of this post. All because in reading the article I came across this great phrase: “…and a willingness to risk the unpredictable…”

Yes, Ms. Iovine uses it in the context of urban development. But I’d like you to use it in the context of every marketing communication you create. Don’t settle for the same predictable results. There is a big difference between, “Try this, and that will happen,” and “Try this, but who knows what might happen.” And the truth is, nothing is ever completely predictable. (Fill in your own example here.)

Take a risk, and even if it does not achieve all you had hoped for, I bet you will have learned something valuable.

I never thought I would purchase a pair of shoes online; the correct sizes are difficult enough to figure out in shoe stores, let alone when you can’t try them on. And who knows what the actual color might be (Brown? There must be 67 shades, each called “Brown.”).

Then I found a site called Zappos, which sounded terrific —and this does have a very happy customer service ending. They offer free shipping both ways, and a 365-day return policy. Plus, free phone service or live chat. And if the pair they sent does not fit, they will send you a different size to try, and you just return the one that does not fit properly.

The glitch was that though they offered me free VIP overnight shipping, (for no reason I could discern), the shoes actually were shipped out standard delivery. This meant I would have to wait 4 or five days, which would have been OK, except for their promise, and my expectation, of speedier delivery. I wrote to tell of my disappointment, and they called and offered up a $25 coupon on my next purchase, which certainly quickly took the sting out.

And then came the service surprise. Below is the front of the card I unexpectedly received from them.

When I read the inside, I was blown away.

The handwritten note had a drawing of a light bulb, and the thought, “Keep those ideas coming.” Obviously Eric, the note writer, had taken the extra effort to visit my blog—the address was on the bottom of my cranky complaint e-mail—and personalized a thank-you note. My first reaction, being a New Yorker, is, “Hey, this guy is stalking me.” But then my paranoia receded, and I accepted it as the exceedingly grand gesture it was.

Do your service people go that extra mile? Few do, but those that do can make a real difference, just as the wicked witch of the west approach can ruin a relationship. Perhaps in this day of instant communication, it makes sense to picture the customer on the other end as a major blogger, or Tweeter; though you are talking to one voice, you may actually be dealing with a full chorus.

Erwin is a motorcyclist in the Globe of Steel, at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He drives 50 miles an hour in a 16-foot globe, according to an article in Snapshot in the New York Times by Glen Collins. (Erwin is on the right, with his brother.)

Here’s what he has to say: “We are obsessive-compulsive about maintaining our bikes…but chains come off, you get flat tires, the engines cut out. The bike could come down. You are going to have an incident here and there.”

A fairly casual way of reminding himself —and you— that unexpected stuff is always going to happen. No matter how thoroughly you prepare, there will be the sudden supplier strike, or your files for the ad vanish, without a trace or a backup, or the logo won’t scale. "You are going to have an incident here and there."

You can’t plan for any specific problem, because usually the ones you plan for are not the ones that cause the predicament. Your best option is to realize it is inevitably going to occur. When it does, fix it the best you can, take the blame, and get on with it. And be thankful you are not on a Yahama going 50 MPH in a steel sphere. (Here’s a slideshow of all the photographs by Damon Winter.)

I was reading an article in the Science Journal in today’s Wall Street Journal, about Archimedes, René Descartes, Nicholas Tesla and…Wait…Wait...Come back. This is about you and creating ideas. Honest.

The article, by Robert Lee Hotz, discusses the role of insights, the bursts of mental clarity, the “Aha” moments that we have all experienced. The point is that our daydreaming brain often leads us to the unexpected ideas. Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically.

So when your mind is wandering, let it do its (unconscious) thing. You can’t always rely on it, nor should you lounge around waiting for that magic moment. But it’s nice to know it happens.

And one last hint. “People in a positive mood were more likely to experience an insight,” researchers at Drexel and Northwestern found. So put on a happy face, and go get ‘em.

Straw credits the company’s emphasis on innovation for the company’s success. “It’s about keeping your eyes and ears open, talking to your customers and your employees.” If you love good ideas, you have to love that philosophy. And Straw puts his money where his philosophy is.

• In their headquarters they a have a jar called “The Big Idea Jar,” and everyone is encouraged to put in an idea.• They also have staff meetings three times a week, where people talk to each other about something other than what they are working on.• Finally, there are no offices; everyone works in an open format, to encourage collaboration and to talk with people who are not in their department.

I am not suggesting your company has to go to this extreme. But these seem like excellent ways to come up with good ideas, both for product and marketing. Of course, I would have called the jar, “The Good Idea Jar,” but Jonna never asked me.

I am not much enamored with the cliché which states that because you have two ears and only one mouth, it is proof you are meant to listen more than you are to speak. But I do believe the point is true; you are better off doing more listening and less speaking.

As the actress Laura Linney said in her recent commencement address to The Julliard School, “Remember that no matter which art you practice, there is no more valuable skill than the ability to listen carefully.”

So to whom are you going to listen?

• Your customers. They will tell you if you are listening to them by how they react to your marketing. If you talk about how good your product is, without telling them why it is of value for them, they won’t hear a word you are saying.• Your suppliers. They may not want to tell you anything negative that would jeopardize your next purchase, but if you really listen, you may find out how you can get things shipped sooner, or produced less expensively. • Your competition. Of course they will point out to anyone who will listen all the limitations of your merchandise. But they may be partially right, and listening to them may help you improve your product or service.• Your people. Be they co-workers, employees, or those you report to, each will have an opinion, a point-of-view, that is probably at least somewhat different from your own, since they are each looking at the same situation from a slightly different perspective.

Basically, you should listen to everyone, relish the input—especially and inevitably when it is contradictory— weigh the thinking, and then do what you think best. But at least you have heard differing views to help steer you to a good decision.

You listening?

UPDATE: Though I doubt he reads my blog—heck, there are times I wonder if anyone reads my blog—Fritz Henderson, the new G.M. chief executive, was quoted thusly in today’s (June 16) New York Times: “Listening to others is a key skill.”

My blog has been up over a year, (my, how time crawls), and I have settled into doing a new post three times a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have kept to this self-imposed schedule through periods of sparse hits (mostly weekends) and times of many visitors (mostly after a mention or link to other blogs).

For me, the discipline of knowing I have to create a new post 3x weekly works best. For others, it may be when inspiration hits, or schedules allow. (I think Seth Godin has written a new post every day since he was thirteen…or it may just seem that way.)

The point is, you should do whatever time frame is comfortable to you, but once you have a rhythm, stick to it. I personally know how busy you are, but many of your readers may not know…or care. And, since perfect is still the enemy of good, waiting to create the ideal post may leave you with lots of empty days between postings.

To me, it is most noticeable with RSS feeds. My Google reader puts new, or unread, posts in bold. When there is nothing new, the name of the site is dimmed down. After a while, you notice who is updating regularly and who is busy doing other things.

Same holds true, I guess, with using Twitter, Facebook, etc. If you are going to use these social media, use them. If you have too much going on, perhaps cut down on the media, but not on the frequency. I know many who Tweet once a week, and wonder why they have only a few followers.

Do you agree?

P.S. For various reasons, some valid and some not so much, I have yet to Twitter. But this blog is about helping you, not me.

Today I am letting a group of disparate marketing folk tell you, in their own words, what my blog has been telling you for the past year. The people involved have nothing in common, except their realization that a good product is invisible without a good marketing idea.

I have gathered these quotes over the past week or so, from various sources. Your assignment is to match the quote with the person who said it.

1. “The key will be whether we deliver a product and connect with people emotionally in the advertising. To achieve the second point, you have do something little bit more surprising."

2. “Data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.”

3. “But talking about new software can be dull. So analysts point to ****’s need to surprise its fans.”

4. “I have also learned about how important great marketing is. I am an engineer, so you know I can crank out products, but if you can’t market them nobody is going to want them, and so both parts are really key.”

5. “You can make the best **** in the world, but you have to be able to get it on the market.”

The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Any one of these people could have basically said any one of the quotes. They are each saying how important to your marketing being surprising and daring must be, if you want your new or improved product to stand a chance in the marketplace.

What do you think? (And if you really want the answers, just leave a comment asking for them.)

If you are like me, (and there’s no reason to believe you are, because if you were, why would you need to read this blog?) you get all kinds of e-mails. Some are informative, some spam, and many of them are simply interesting lists of things.

I received an e-mail recently listing things that seemed easy, but were impossible. On the list was, “touching your elbow to your ear,” or some similar physical impossibility. And further down the list was a wager that the person reading the list had immediately tried to put their elbow to their ear. (Guilty.)

I was reminded of this when I saw an ad for a new bank. Its copy claimed that, “we never hide behind fine print,” and so the first thing I did, before even reading any farther, was to look at the bottom of the ad. Sure enough, the only thing lurking down below was a copyright notice. Good for them. But…

…I noticed their next ad, which talked about a really high 12-month CD rate. With no asterisk. And yet, buried below, in fine print land, was the undersized type that said, “APY is accurate as of 06/05/2009. Early withdrawal penalty may apply.”

To me, if they really wanted to be straightforward, as their slogan claims, they could have put that small amount of type into the body copy. It would have been consistent with their previous message, and different. And I would have had to search some more for today’s blog topic.

Also I wondered about all the other fine print information that was omitted, along with the missing asterisk. Such as whether there were any opening minimums, what was the maximum dollar amount, was this valid for commercial as well as consumer accounts? Plus, I am certain this was subject to change without notice, as another bank’s fine print put it.

My point is that there is nothing wrong with claiming no fine print, if there really is none. But if some restrictions are necessary, use an indication, like the traditional asterisk, to inform me that I should read the legal information. And maybe do something clever and appealing to get the mandatory information across.

*Just because the lawyers insist you put the information in does not mean that you have to write it like a legal brief. It’s one more chance to stand out with a good idea.